The first Wrong Turn hit theaters back in 2003 and I was lucky enough to catch an early screening of it at the time, where it ultimately became one of my favorite backwoods' horror films. It spawned a pretty decent sequel four years later, only to end up with another new addition to the franchise every couple years. Unfortunately, none of the other straight-to-DVD sequels were quite as good as the first two movies, with each almost getting worse as it went on. It was all seemingly over by the sixth installment in 2014. Of course, in this genre, the movies (much like the characters in them) never really die, so now we have this latest one, which reboots the series and takes it into a surprisingly different direction.

Initially, the film starts out like any other Wrong Turn: a group of young adventure-seeking friends take a trip to hike the Appalachian Trail, where they veer off the path and find themselves lost in the woods. This is naturally after receiving several warnings from the locals to stay on the trail, but nobody ever listens to the locals in these movies. It’s not long before they encounter several deadly traps in the woods, leading to some members of the group wounded or dead.

It’s soon revealed that the traps are set by a small community of self-sufficient people who have lived off the land for centuries and don’t take kindly to outsiders. This is where the movie kind of goes its own way, leading to almost a completely different film in comparison to the original. Don’t expect to see any inbred cannibals here, instead we have a fairly intelligent group of people who have their own rules and abide by their own laws. This is something I wish had been explored in the past films, where instead of simply focusing on the inbred brothers they could’ve revealed more family members or maybe a group of new cannibals.

I liked the use of traps and the new community aspect of the movie, but dropping the whole inbred/cannibal theme makes it seem less like a Wrong Turn film and more of something else entirely. In fact, had it not been called Wrong Turn you’d never know it was part of that franchise at all. Next to that, the movie is taken entirely too serious, making it harder to suspend disbelief when it came to some of the glaring plot holes. For instance, why not put up more signs and fence off their land instead of putting traps that could harm people that don't know any better? And something occurs around the mid-mark that’s not only a little hard to believe, but also takes the story into a different direction that almost makes it seem like two completely different films.

Lastly, aside from maybe a couple scenes, don’t expect a lot of blood and gore, despite what you might’ve seen in the promotional material. Much of what’s shown is fairly tame, while the rest is either off screen or shown after the fact. Either way, it's a decent watch and while it might not be quite as fun as it used to be, the pacing isn’t bad and the movie offers some interesting ideas and aspects that I wish had been explored in the past films. 

Saban Films will release the horror film On Demand, Digital, Blu-ray and DVD on February 23, 2021.